The University hosted a lecture by television news personality Jack Ford in Anacon Hall that was designed as an open dialogue regarding the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the controversy regarding student athlete wages on Wednesday, April 5.

Ford began the lecture talking about his background. He and his three siblings were raised by a single mother, as their father abandoned the family when Ford was five years of age. Shortly thereafter, Ford moved into the attic of his grandparents’ home in Jersey City that had no air conditioning. However, his mother was steadfast in her commitment to youth athletics, and Ford excelled at football. Eventually, he received a scholarship to play at Yale University, then received a law degree from Fordham Univer-sity.

Being a former college athlete himself, Ford discussed the recent NCAA college basketball tournament and his thoughts concern-ing the organizations reception.

“After the championship game when Jim Nantz (sportscaster) comes over and takes the microphone, with all the players and coaches and you have this big celebration. But as soon as Jim says ‘I want to introduce from the NCAA,’ boos took over,” said Ford. “In the midst of all this great joy and celebration, there is still these boos cascading from the rafters for the NCAA. The one overarch-ing factor for this is money. It is the fact of money. In many instances, it is the fallacy of money. But it is always hovering above college sports.”

A total of 130 employers attended last spring. “We actually tied last year’s record breaking event, but our focus is always on the quality of our employers,” said Jeff Mass, Assistant Director of Career Services.

Mass explained that there has been a 36 percent increase in attendance from last spring as there were 500 students in attendance last year and 680+ students in attendance this year.

The President Talks Wilson Hall, the Importance of Students, and his Future at Monmouth

Grey J. Dimenna was named the President of the University on Feb. 28. He started his Monmouth career on Feb. 20, 1995, as Vice President and General Counsel and retired July 31, 2013. Since the transition from former President Paul R. Brown, President Dimenna has had some time to reintegrate into the University community. The Outlook sat down with him to get a deeper look into his past, present, and future.

How long do you anticipate being the Interim President?

The trustees have said that they don’t want me using the title “Interim President.” [Rather] they want me to use the title “President,” because, as they said, I am the President and I have the full authority of the President just like any other President has had.

A noticeable increase in rainbow colored stickers on office doors and desk stations may soon be observed, as nearly 30 deans, vice provosts, and other individuals within Academic Affairs will be receiving Safe Zone training on May 2.

Safe Zone training is performed at colleges and universities across the country in order to create awareness and develop allies for students in lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ+) communities, according to thesafezoneproject.org.

As part of a collaboration between the Departments of Sociology and Communication, as well as the New Jersey Department of Corrections, the University will be offering an extension to its current, Investigating the School-to-Prison Pipeline course through an additional class that will allow students to regularly visit a maximum-security prison in Trenton starting in Fall 2017.

The program currently falls under the larger umbrella of the University’s Academic Exchange Program, and aims to help students learn more about mass incarceration through direct interaction with incarcerated people, according to Dr. Johanna Foster, Assistant Professor of Sociology. Foster hopes to get students thinking about several aspects of mass incarceration, including the political dynamic, gender inequalities, and institutionalized racism of the system.

An estimated $27,000 was received in donations from alumni, students, staff, parents, and friends of the University on their third annual Giving Day – a day dedicated to raising scholarship funds for potential University students.

The first Giving Day was on March 24, 2015, which also marked the 20th anniversary of Monmouth becoming a University. “Monmouth Giving Day gives the Monmouth community a chance to come together and make a lasting impact on current and future students,” said Michele Whitlow, Director of University Engagement and Giving Day Planner.

In addition to the scholarship fund, donors also had the option of giving to a specific department, creating the opportunity for donors to give back to the department that means the most to them.

According to Whitlow there were a number of opportunities for individuals to get involved with the Day. “Giving Day was all about giving back to Monmouth and making an impact. People could have done that through our website or in person at the Rebecca Stafford Student Center - we had live music, prizes and games happening there all day. We also had ‘Phil the Pig’ happening on that day, which encouraged student involvement. Second – we loved seeing people post about it on social media. It’s always neat seeing people get excited about Monmouth,” said Whitlow.

Over 700 attendees gathered for the Jersey Matters Town Hall: The Heroin Crisis to address the states heroin epidemic in Pollak Theatre on Mar. 16.

There are roughly 128,000 heroin users in NJ, and the epidemic claimed 918 lives in 2015, which is the highest annual death toll from heroin ever seen in NJ according to an article by the Observer published on Jan 8.

Drug overdoses in NJ jumped overall by 21 percent between 2014 and 2015 according to the article, and health experts in the state expect the data from 2016 and 2017 to be far worse than the current numbers.

The event was co-sponsored by WJLP Me-TV, the Asbury Park Press, and the Discovery Institute, and included many individuals from various backgrounds who were touched in some way by the heroin epidemic; including Attorney General Christopher Porrino, actress and former heroin addict Mackenzie Phillips, other former addicts, their family members, attorneys, and medical practitioners.

One panelist included Stephanie Oswald, the mother of Andrew Oswald III, who died of a heroin overdose at the age of 23. During the event Oswald shared why she made sure that the cause of her son’s death was explicitly made known on his obituary.

Kenneth Womack, Ph.D., Dean of the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences, was honored with the Dr. Harold and Dorothy Seymour Medal from the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR) for his book “The Eighth Wonder of the World: The Life of Houston’s Iconic Astrodome,” on Mar. 4.

Womack co-authored the book with Robert C. Trumpbour, Ph.D., an associate professor of communications at Pennsylvania State University at Altoona.

SABR awards the medal to “the best book of baseball history or biography published during the previous calendar year” and must be, “the product of original research or analysis,” according to the SABR website. The website also states that the winning book must “significantly advance our knowledge of baseball and shall be characterized by understanding, factual accuracy, profound insight and distinguished writing.”

Phi Eta Sigma's Annual Induction Ceremony

The University’s Phi Eta Sigma chapter held it’s annual induction ceremony of 196 new members in Pollak Theater on Friday, Mar. 24. Phi Eta Sigma, the nation’s oldest and largest honor society for first-year college and university students, encourages and rewards academic excellence among freshmen in institutions of higher learning, according to their site.

The ceremony began at 7 p.m. with opening remarks from Society President Emily Townsend, a senior business administration student. The audience consisted of inductees, their relatives, faculty, and more, who Townsend thanked for being there. She went on to introduce Phi Eta Sigma’s faculty advisor Dr. Golam Mathbor.

“You are among the select few students who have met the requirements necessary for induction into Phi Eta Sigma,” said Mathbor. “Once you have been inducted, you are a member for life.”

Twelve study abroad Monmouth University students were in London, UK when 52-year-old Khalid Masood killed three pedestrians and injured about 40 others as he drove through a crowd on Westminster Bridge at around 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday, Mar. 22.

Masood crashed his car into railings in front of Parliament Yard, before leaving his vehicle, and going through the gate to the Palace of Westminster, where he fatally stabbed Keith Palmer, a 48-year-old unarmed police officer. Moments later, Masood was shot dead, according to The Telegraph.

The events at the bridge took place in under 90 seconds, according to Sky News.

Three miles from the site of the attack is Regent’s University, where study abroad students reside. All twelve of the students were reported safe within the hour according William Mant, the Regents Study Abroad Advisor for inbound students. Some had been in the city itself, while others had been in the dorms at the University, or in class.

“When I first heard about the attack in London, I felt this terrible sadness, like, ‘Not again,’” said Robyn Asaro, Assistant Director of the University’s study abroad program. “Everyone in the office feels the shock. My first thought was, ‘Are our students okay?’ Luckily, I was literally speaking with my colleague from Regent’s when one of the girls contacted him to confirm that everyone in the Monmouth group was safe.”

The Trump administration removed Obama-era federal guidelines for transgender students in public schools and as a result, students are no longer guaranteed the right under federal law to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities that match their gender identity, as of Feb. 23. However, the University’s establishment of gender-neutral bathrooms will remain unaffected, according to administration.

The protections, in place since May 2016 by former President Barack Obama, said that prohibiting transgender students from using facilities that align with their gender identity violated federal anti-discrimination laws. The White House announced the roll-back of Obama’s protection guidelines in a statement published on Feb. 22.

President Trump declared, “policy regarding transgender bathrooms should be decided at the state level...returning power to the states paves the way for an open and inclusive process to take place at the local level with input from students, parents, teachers, and administrators.”